Athenian Myths and Festivals

Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia

Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood
Edited by Robert Parker

The last work by one of the great authorities on the practices of ancient Athenian religion

Includes topics, such as the Parthenon frieze, which are of wide interest

Reconstructs several of the important Athenian festivals, to underpin the argument

Athenian Myths and Festivals

Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia

Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood
Edited by Robert Parker

Description

Moving out from a particular problem about a particular Athenian festival, the late Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood investigates central questions concerning Athenian festivals and the myths that underlay them. She studies the role played at festivals by hereditary religious associations, showing how simple actions of undressing, veiling, bathing, and re-dressing a statue created a symbolic drama of abnormality, reversion to primeval time, and renewal for the Athenians. Sourvinou-Inwood also offers a reading of the ever controversial Parthenon frieze. Her book, brought to completion by Robert Parker, displays all the attention to detail and the concern for methodological rigour that have made her an iconic figure among students of Greek religion.

Athenian Myths and Festivals

Aglauros, Erechtheus, Plynteria, Panathenaia, Dionysia

Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood
Edited by Robert Parker

Table of Contents

I. Festivals and Gene: Reconstructions, Problematik, Methodologies II. Cultic Myths and Others: Aglauros, Erichthonios, Erechtheus, Praxithea 1. Reading cultic myths2. Aglauros3. Erechtheus, Erichthonios and others4. Reconstructing cultic myths: a summary of the conclusionsIII. Reading a Festival Nexus: Plynteria and Kallynteria 5. Thargelion 25: Day One of the Plynteria6. Aglauros, Aitia, Plynteria and Kallynteria7. Thargelion 26: Day Two: the procession to Phaleron8. Kallynteria: Thargelion 27 and 28: the return to the Acropolis and the reopening of the temple9. Washing the new woolIV. Athena at the Palladion and the Palladion Myths V. Athena Polias, Panathenaia and the Peplos VI. CityDionysia and the Cult of Dionysos Eleuthereus VII. Gene and Athenian Festivals: Some Conclusions